More on the Eye

 

Overall, it was a relaxing weekend of no drama!  That which I do not mention, while still problematic, was not causing any direct problems.  

• On Saturday, my wife and I tried to go swimming, but when we arrived, we found the site was closed because of a lack of a lifeguard (called in sick).  That was discouraging, but minor... so we did other things.
• My wife also had a wedding to attend Saturday.  Unfortunately, it was work related, and the young couple was very budget conscious and I was not invited.  Actually, my wife and all of my wife's work colleagues only received individual invitations.  It seemed odd to me, but I guess it is a new "thing" for the budget conscious.   It would have been enjoyable to have a drink or two and to dance (in my clod-hopping, Clydesdale Horse sort-of fashion) with my wife.  
• Instead, I went to a 5:00pm Mass at one of the parishes we are considering making our new home. 
• At home that evening, all by myself, I sat on the couch with the dog and read and listened to some classical music.  I was feeling a bit lonely.  And, I was also very much feeling a STRONG desire to smoke a pipe.  I was ruminating on having a pipe so much, that I was not having much luck on concentrating on anything else.  I ended up taking a bit of a risky choice, and took out one of my pipes that was especially clean, and I filled the bowl with Three Star Blue pipe tobacco.  I then clenched the stem between my teeth and drew in air through the bowl so I could at least experience a bit of the pouch scent and flavor of that beautiful leaf.  It helped somewhat... although I do admit I took out my Zippo lighter a few times and spun the flint wheel, having the lighter produce a beautiful, yellow flame.  I also a few times did close my eyes and pretend I was lighting the bowl with the Zippo. But... in the end, I did NOT actually smoke my pipe.  And, because I had enough forethought to fill a pipe that had an especially clean bowl, at the end of the evening, I was able to knock the beautiful crumbles of Three Star Blue out of the bowl into my palm, and put them back into the pouch so they would not be discarded and wasted.  
  
• On Sunday, my wife and I got up early and had breakfast.  We then did some house cleaning, and some food prep for the week.  
• It rained quite heavily all Sunday, so we were anticipating the last outdoor concert of the group we had been seeing & hearing each of the last Sundays would be cancelled.  Fortunately, however, we learned that they had an alternate, indoor venue to play at in case of rain!  So, we were able to listen to the beautiful music again, one final time for the season!

Today.....

• I admit.... I SHOULD HAVE RAN OUTDOORS.... but it was raining, which I usually do not mind, but it was also rather windy (~12mph winds, ~19 kph winds).... I do not like running into the wind, and with rain and with cooler temperatures (59 degrees F, ~15 degrees C).... I just didn't feel up to navigating that sort of onslaught at 5:55am.  I instead ran at the indoor track.  13.2 miles (~21km).  
• My wife had her eye appointment early this morning, so when she was close to being done, I had finished my run and was getting dressed for the day.  I drove down to the clinician's office and joined her to help in choosing glasses.  When I had my appointment last week, I had the eyeglass fitter write down the model numbers of five different pair I was considering.  That way, my wife could help me choose my pair as well today as I would help her in choosing her pair.  My wife ultimately chose a pleasing, plastic framed pair that was quite stylish, and the frames were a pale lavender in color.  My wife has the type of skin tone where she looks really wonderful in a wide array of colors, but purples are especially pleasing color for her in terms of the colors of frames available.  For me, although I had five different frames of a variety of styles, I was almost certain I wanted to get one particular pair.  When I was there last week, I was delighted that OVAL shaped lenses on glasses appear to be "coming back" into availability.... after having been supplanted by a lot of more ANGULAR and SQUARISH shapes of frames the last few years.  Well..... actually, I am not sure if "coming back" is the right term.... of the hundreds of frames at the office... they had TWO frames that were METAL frames AND also had genuine OVAL shaped lenses.  I tried both on, and my wife agreed with me that the brown, wire-rimmed OVALS were what I should get.    
  
• Working on getting research ideas for the Fall up-to-snuff, and down on paper so I can get some outlines of plans out to my various research students.  
•  My wife and I are planning to swim again today.... and hopefully the place will be staffed with lifeguards so we CAN swim!  

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